20 May 2010

19 May 2010

The Saturday after Evan's birthday, we had his first birthday party that was just about his friends. We headed to the Radisson hotel to celebrate at their indoor splash pad. So much fun was to be had, I completely forgot to take pictures. Grrr!

After the swimming, we headed upstairs for pizza and cake. It was so fun to see all of the little ones partying it up!

The Birthday Boy with Ethan and Andrew:

And here is Cody or, as Evan likes to call him, Cody the Cowboy:

Richard:

Jackson:

And Libby, trying to steal the show in her little one-piece:

Evan's BEST friend, Andrew:

Maddie...Isn't she just beautiful? Looks just like her momma:

OK...I absolutely hate this but this is one of Evan's friend. The problem is that he has an identical twin. Identical. We have been at Good Shepherd with them from almost the beginning but I still can't tell them apart. So this is either Aiden or Neil:

And here is the other one:

Landon:

Joshua:

And last, but not least, Brant:

It was such a fun afternoon and it was just fascinating to watch these these guys interact and see that they have really formed friendships. I hate it because next fall, some of the kids are moving on to new schools and a few will be staying at Good Shepherd. Evan and Richard are the only two headed to St. John's. We are thrilled we get to see Richard every day! And I am hoping that we will keep lasting friendships with the rest of the boys. They are all great kids and I love that I can call their moms my friends!

16 May 2010

The Valdez's are some of our favorite people in the world! Kind, down to earth, funny...what more can you ask for in friends? We asked them to come down for Evan's birthday and so we all headed to Tulsa on Friday so we could hang out before the party the next day.

Friday night, we went to eat at Copeland's. Usually it is one of my favorites, but it was such a horrible experience. Our waiter was more concerned about being witty than being a waiter. He forgot to take our order. Our food took forever to finally make it to the table. We are talking about two hours folks. The big kids really did well. I think the appetizers did a good job of holding them over. One fun thing about going to Copeland's was that we learned Evan loves calamari. He prefers to call it squid though. No need to fancy it up for him. However, Libby was a whole other story. All I will say is that I didn't even stay for dinner. It was so bad, the Hathaway ladies just called it a night.

Ethan and Evan toughing it out:

The next morning, we headed out to breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Much better experience all around...thank goodness!

Miss Emily hamming it up:

Here is that pose. Again. I don't know why he raises his hand every single time we ask him to say cheese:

And Libby Lou cutting to the chase and going straight to the syrup:

Thank you Dan, Joanna, Emily and Ethan for coming to Tulsa and celebrating Evan's birthday with us!

12 May 2010

Today, Evan turned four years old. He so excited about being one year older and had been talking about it for months. Really, months!

We got the birthday festivities started off by getting ice cream with some of our favorite friends, the Scheland Boys.

Afterwards, Momma Scheland and I took the boys for a game of bowling. I forgot my camera so I didn't get a single picture. But just imagine four little guys all gung ho to bowl and then slowly losing interest. At the end, Jennifer, Will and I were doing most of the bowling.

Later that evening, we did Round Two of more birthday fun. Nana came up and Evan got to open a few birthday presents.

And Nana brought up a birthday cookie for everyone to share...

And did you notice that Evan had changed into his Transformer's costume, which just happens to be Bumble Bee. It is very ironic because, just a few short minutes later, Evan got his first Bumble Bee sting. Right on his little rear end. Dad and Nana both thought he just had to go to the bathroom but the poor baby was not dancing around. He was flailing in pain. He was fine after some baking soda and benedryl but not before some serious swelling and a break out of hives. What a birthday surprise, huh?

Evan had such a great day and like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, he was so, so excited. But I have been just dreading this day. Every day he is just gaining more independence, more knowledge and more curiosity to fuel that knowledge. He starts pre-K this year and I just hate giving him up five days a week. But I am so proud of my sweet little boy. So kind, so loving and so selfless. A great big brother. A loyal friend. An eager student. I may be partial but he is one fantastic kid!

07 May 2010

01 May 2010

but Libby really is a girly girl. She loves pink, shoes and baby dolls!

For someone who can be such a stinker, she is surprisingly maternal. I catch her singing and soothing her babies all the time! She loves to rock her babies and take them around in her grocery cart. She could probably work on being gentle and tender but all in all...she is a good momma!